Freewheeling Up The Hill

FREEWHEELING UP THE HILL is a collection of poetry and prose written over the years and now gathered together in ebook form with print and audio versions planned for the near future.

From painted nails to pilgrimages, red squirrels to red shoes, talking bikes to wedding blessings, power moves to pews on wheels, I had a go at capturing incidents, reactions and emotions as they presented themselves.

The title comes from a term I use at weekends i.e. that I freewheel on Saturdays.

Freewheeling is what I call being free to write what I like and having the whole day to do it. It’s that weekend ‘inside smile’ when phones don’t ring.

As with life, writing can be an uphill experience sometimes but on good days, when all is well with the world and one’s pen is in gear, it can be exhilarating. You can almost feel the warm breeze on your face as you freewheel up the hill.

Putting this collection together has been an interesting experience. Decisions abounded – what to put in, what to leave out – but after all is said and sorted I hope that there is eating and drinking in the choices, so to speak. There’s a mixture of topics, poetry, prose and mood so expect some serious as well as some humorous pieces.

It’s writing from a rural heart really as I try, like everyone else, to navigate my way round the world. Fingers crossed there will be something to either tickle your fancy or strike a chord – or both.

Most of what I do is spoken word writing – for radio or public performance – so there is a conversational feel to it. I’ve tried many of the poems out in the monthly Tacumshane Old School Storytelling sessions near when I live and I’ve included short introductions to each piece because, in open mic situations, the tale of how the poem or story came about usually gets an airing first and gives an insight into how the brain cogs kick into motion.

Deny Me Not

“You knew my mother better than that…”
“I don’t know what you’re intimating, girl, but I’d watch what I was saying if I were you.”

Born in a 1960s mother and baby home Hannah Casey has never known her father but when her mother finally discloses his name she is determined to confront him.

Her search takes her into the rural community of Rathbrandon where her arrival impacts dramatically on arrogant landowner Abe Stephenson; on his unsuspecting wife, Florrie, and on the relatives who think that only they should inherit his property.

Will Hannah survive the battle and will the truth really set anyone free?

Set in 2004 Deny Me Not is a story about chickens coming home to roost, the nature of love and greed and of how secrets revealed have the power to knock a world sideways.

Restless Spirit The Story of Rose Quinn

‘You’ll marry the man we’ve matched you with, do you hear?’
Rose crouched down as he bent over her. ‘Yes, Yes’ she sobbed, praying he’d leave her alone.
‘Good. The date is set, the 6th of November before 8 o’clock mass, so start making your plans.’

‘And then there was Rose …’ – five little words that catapulted Wexford woman, Patricia Quinn, into a dedicated search for information about the great-aunt she never knew.

Rose Quinn died in an asylum less than a year after being committed. Such was the stigma attached to having a relative in the asylum that Patricia’s father, John Quinn, only told her about this shortly before he died.

In the course of subsequent research Patricia was shocked to discover many coincidences between her life and Rose’s. There was also an unexpected spiritual connection between Rose and Patricia’s daughter, Catherine, that was to result in finding Rose’s burial place – a plot behind the asylum, now known as St Senan’s Hospital.

This fascinating book interweaves the search for information about Rose with a reconstruction of her life in novel form. Rose Quinn had to become a restless spirit to have her story told. This is it.